Chronic Pain Meds Unlikely to Cause Addiction

[Guest guest]

I thought this was very interesting information - nne

Chronic Pain Meds Unlikely to Cause

Addiction

By MedHeadlines • May 9th, 2008 • Category: Drugs, Headlines, Medical Research, Neurology, Pain

The general population and many in the

medical community alike harbor the popular opinion that using strong pain

medications, including opioids, for long-term, chronic pain puts the patient at

high risk of developing an addiction to the pain medications. A report

presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Pain Society (APS)

reveals evidence to the contrary.

Srinivasa Raja, MD, a professor of

anesthesiology at s Hopkins University Medical School, reports that less

than 3% of all patients suffering from chronic pain and who have no history of

abusing drugs of any kind may eventually show signs of dependence or abuse when

taking these medications pain relief. He urged the medical community to keep

this very small percentage of risk in mind when establishing policies for

prescribing such medications to patients who are far more likely to benefit

from them than be endangered by them.

Raja also points to media attention

surrounding an increase in the abuse of such medications but says these drugs

are easily obtained from unregulated internet pharmacies and through theft and

forgery of prescriptions, not just from within the legitimate medical

establishment. While the established medical community is not the sole source

of supply for these medications, Raja urges diligent communication between

physician and patient, with patient screening procedures to identify addictive

or potentially abusive behaviors becoming a routine part of the prescription

and follow-up phases of treatment.

Raja further calls for uniformity in state

and federal drug regulations and praises the teen drug awareness campaigns

underway across the country as a means of preventing abuse of this type of

drug. Raja says collaboration from the healthcare community, law enforcement agencies,

and the pharmaceutical industry is needed to ensure people who need them will

be allowed continued access to these medications, especially in the many cases

where the benefits far exceed the risk of dependency.

Alternative treatments such as cognitive

behavior and physical therapies should be used to supplement pain medications

whenever possible, according to Raja. He says using this multi-faceted approach

to pain management is much more effective than relying only on pain medications

as the sole means of relief in most cases.

In his address to the APS, Raja cited past

beliefs about pain that have been disproved by scientific evidence, such as

that babies didn’t feel pain and therefore didn’t need anesthesia and that

cancer patients should eschew the most potent and effective pain medications

due to the supposed risk of addiction. These outdated beliefs have been proven

wrong and he feels the fear of addiction should be abandoned as well in favor

of effective treatment for pain management without the stigma of potential

addiction influencing treatment options.

Source: American Pain Society

[Guest guest]

I am sure that is true. However pain meds which subdue the pain can create a

feeling of euphoria, at least at first. Possibly the amount of the drug to

create euphoria is higher than that to prevent the pain so those who might

become addicted are likely to take more of the drug than they actually need for

pain.

I once had a cough which lasted for months and the doctors could do nothing for

me (it was allergy related). Then I cracked a rib from the severe coughing.

They gave me tylenol with codeine which not only stopped the pain from the

cracked rib, it also stopped the coughing.

I never took more than the amount prescribed. It did give me a feeling of

euphoria and made me a bit sleepy. I recall that I did a lot of laughing when I

first started taking it.

I did not like the effects and took as little as possible to control my pain.

But if I had enjoyed the euphoria I would have probably taken more than I needed

for the pain.

If someone becomes addicted to narcotic meds which are prescribed for pain they

most likely take more than they actually need for pain management.

Ora

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:54:16 -0400, " millburytimes " millburytimes@...>

wrote:

>I thought this was very interesting information - nne

>

>

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>Chronic Pain Meds Unlikely to Cause Addiction

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